The credit of doom…

I maybe should of started this a long time ago, then I could of had you all to endure the pain with me. For some you may find this so utterly boring, some may find it of interest & others may find it really helpful.

To be honest this is for me, to rant, get it down, and document a pretty stressful moment in my life, and this is what my blog is all about!

So I’ll take you back to the summer of 2014, we had a new baby, our beautiful boy. We lived in a flat I owed and were waiting for the right time to buy a house together, for our son to have his very own room!

We went to the bank and were given the all clear, so most of my mat leave, I drove up and down the M25, umpteen viewings to properties. Then I found ‘the one’ we put an offer in and YES it was accepted!

That week I went to the bank to put the mortgage through! ‘Computer literally says no’ flags up on the screen. Myself & the mortgage adviser looked so confused, we couldn’t understand, the credit report noodle showed up fine!

It kept rejecting, so the mortgage lady said, go home and try Experian and see if that shows anything! So that’s what I did! Mine looked fine, excellent in fact. Martin did his and boom, it was suddenly very clear where the issue was, umpteen defaults sprung up.. red red red, if you could get lower than poor then that’s what he had!

I was furious, Martin assured me this wasn’t him! He was straight away in touch with Experian, we assumed! (and you know what that means) that Experian was on it and looking into this issue!

By this point we had sold the flat & started to rent a two bed in a lovely location, we wanted monkey to have his own room, and figured if we then brought as first time buyers that would put us in a better position.

Weeks, months and then a year go by and nothing! Down to some of our own fault for not checking up on them, but things happen and time just flies! I had started back at work, monkey was at a nursery etc.

Jan 2016

Martin enquires at Experian as to what is going on! No one seems to have a clue, great! So we file and complaint, then the fun really starts, we have a person overseeing the complaint, months go by, and in truth are useless, over the next months we get passed to person to person, before finally getting someone who is fairy useful, I’ll say that loosely as our whole experience has been dealing with inadequate account handlers.

He really does try to some extent, updating weekly on actions, whats happened, how it will be resolved etc! But nothing changes, there seems to be a brick wall and no one can communicate with each other!

Going by the Money saving expert website for complaints, it states that you complain giving the company in question 8 weeks, if they do nothing or are not resoling to your satisfaction then you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman.

And.. that’s exactly what we did!

April 2016

Sent a complaint letter to the Financial Ombudsman!

The Financial Ombudsman, which I’ll start to refer to as the FO (as easier) were dealing with Experian, so they were laying out what they had to do, but our contact was still via Experian.

We were again told about actions and what they were doing to achieve this to be resolved! We were told that everything would be clear and sorted August 2016…

Guess what! Nope!

The back and forth carried on for months, causing us nothing but stress!

Every so often being given dates that this would be cleared and the date would come and go!

Then we fell pregnant with Piglet! We were so excited but so stressed that we still didn’t have our own home for our babies.

Jan 2017

The FO then take over the contact with us, a few months go by and we end up with the 3rd person to deal with our account, going up the ladder and we were beyond disgusted with the lack of communication we were experiencing!

Throughout the whole year, Martin was forever calling, trying to resolve.

It was proven it wasn’t him a year before an yet still nothing, dates given, nothing changes.

Then they have the cheek to tell us that a certain pay day company was asking for more time to prove it was him… and they gave it to them, even though over this whole time, there was NO evidence it was him!

The company even took it to court, they were given time and time to drag it out! Eventually the court through it out and what do you know… it wasn’t Martin… Its FRAUD!

Its made me laugh, that an institution that is supposed to be there to help people like us! play by the ‘rules’ for these companies but have never adhered to or done what they said they would for us and the thousands of other cases out there that the FO are ‘dealing with’

We contacted the MP, at the time it was Phillip Hammond, the office got in touch with the FO and kicked them up the you know what.. but they never actually communicated to us or got in touch with Martin. Crazy its all very cloak and dagger!

We’ve asked for the adjudicator (person at the FO, that is partial to the running of the FO) to call us for months, as we were told that she was overseeing all the accounts and complaints, so far we have NEVER heard from her! Even after being told she would, and after us emailing her!

I really feel for piglet, the craziness she heard and dealt with growing inside me, while this was going on, the stress its put on me and Martin! We don’t really argue but this situation is the only thing we argue about, its been that stressful that we struggled to keep it together! I actually thank my lucky stars that we had piglet, as she was our shining light that kept us sane! Not that monkey wasn’t enough, but when your pregnant you have even more of an urge to keep it together!

In the summer we contacted the watch dog, who have since taken our story, but have yet to know if it will be taken further, I do know that they have had many stories like us! So in some way its refreshing to know its not just us! Even if they don’t use us, I hope the story goes ahead and the public are made aware! Then maybe the government will do something about it!

Equally the FO try and give that as an excuse, I don’t care if there are others, I just care about us and it being resolved for my family, as harsh as that sounds!

The whole year, Martin was chasing the FO, while as a family, we were preparing for the arrival of our daughter.

Call credit are another company involved and who the FO are dealing with, Call credit are the ones your information go to and then this is what feeds to the report agencies, i.e Experian. For such a huge organisation, I’m confused how so much goes wrong, its always someone hasn’t done something, or an account has gone down, or someone forgot to turn on the computer… seriously the excuses are sometimes nearly that pathetic!

While this has been happening every October we have to renew our rental, we have spent well over 60k on rent! I know lots of people rent, but what makes me so mad, is that we could of been paying off a mortgage for our family. I know this to so many, sounds so pathetic, as there are people are hell of a lot worse off than us, and I do appreciate everything I have! But I want what most do and that’s to have a home that’s ours for our children! We are lucky to be able to buy a home, and the only thing that’s stopping us is a report on a screen saying so.. and worse still the wrong information.

March 2018

We are now into yet another year, the same saga hangs over us, like a cloud of doom!

Since seeing a Mortgage adviser in December, he suggested us getting a letter of the situation, as lenders may lend with this information!

Well today Martin finally received it yay (If you saw my insta yesterday, this is what I was meaning) I say YAY loosely as its taken since the beginning of December to just get a letter to say the situation and that the FO are dealing with it.

Since last year we were told the account was clear, but we’ve been locked out of our report for months, Martin was due to get the login today, guess what….

It didn’t work…

Martin went to the FO’s office today to pick up the letter and get the new login! We are now being told this should be being given Thursday when Martin meets the FO and adjudicator!

So today I have sent the letter to our mortgage person, to see if this is enough information for some lenders to lend to us..

I’ll keep you all updated, i’m not feeling very positive as you can imagine!

This all probably seems very bitty, long, boring and unless I post every email, I don’t think anyone can really understand the situation.

But the stress, arguments, uncertainty this has brought to Martin and I is truly indescribable!

I needed to vent this after so long of saying nothing online, family and friends know all about it, but there could be people out there, going through the same, plus I suppose this situation is part of the my journey and that’s what I set out for my blog, I just hope that this turns into a memory and not the path of our future!

For now I’ll stick to my ‘Home Dreams’ Pinterest board and insta for being over jealous haha